Penola House is a workplace where we share and learn new skills to empower new citizens to live life more fully in our Newcastle community.
Penola House is a place of welcome and friendship for refugees and their families.
There is social interaction, faith, skill sharing and lots of fun.
Why is our centre called Penola House?
Father Julian Tenison Woods and Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first saint started a school at Penola in South Australia in 1866. Consequently we remember the small begininnings of the stable in Penola as we carry on the work of Mary MacKilop and The Sisters of St Joseph who support Penola House in Newcastle.
Featured commet from Johanne Parent
I would like to say hello to Sister Betty.
I was a volunteer at the Penola house for 8 months. I enjoyed being part of the sewing activity on Tuesdays. I met friendly and generous ladies from all over the world. I came back to Canada in May 2009. I am happy to be back in my home town but I miss Australia and its welcoming citiziens. I’ll never forget this wonderful experience .
Thank you again
Penola House rejoices that their efforts to support Jerome Ruguzura in Newcastle and his family in Africa have come to such a happy conclusion.
Jerome a Newcastle University student has been reunited with his wife Imaculee and their children – Bonfils, 12, Joy, 8, Jessica, 4, and two-year-old King.
Jerome and his family are Banyamulenge Tutsi, a tribal group and are Democratic Republic of Congo nationals.
At one stage, due to conflicts in their homeland Jerome and his wife become separated in diferent refugee camps and for three harrowing years neither knew where the other was, or even if they were alive.
Work is needed to ensure that Immaculee’s three siblings (cared for by her since their parents were killed) are united with the Ruguzura family in Australia soon. Read more about the Ruguzura family in the Aurora Page 5. Aurora online magazine
Ahmed Ahmed and sisters Princess and Yeah Yeah Gbeadeh, adversely impacted by the privatising of refugee services. Photos courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald
(L to R) Lovette as her mother knew her before leaving Africa, The story gains media attention, front page of the Newcastle Herald, Family reunion of Princess Gbeadeh, Promise and Lovette.
Princess Gbeadeh believed her daughter Lovette had been killed with other members of her family in a village massacre in 2003.
Just weeks before Ms Gbeadeh a Liberian refugee came to Australia from a Guinea refugee camp in 2005, she was informed her daughter was alive. After the amazing discovery that Lovette was alive, Ms Gbeadeh made unsuccessful attempts in the refugee camp to get her daughter included on her humanitarian visa to Australia.
She was advised it was better to make the application from Australia, which she did in the weeks after arriving in Newcastle. But in 2006 it was denied because Ms Gbeadeh could not prove the child was hers.
Lovette’s birth certificate was burnt in the village raid and Ms Gbeadeh could not afford DNA testing.
After media attention, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship invited Ms Gbeadeh to submit a second application and agreed to pay for DNA testing. In February 2010 the family reunion occurred.
Puppets from Yarramundi Kids Show entertain and educate kids from Corpus Christi Primary School, Waratah, Newcastle over Refugee Week. Photo courtesy Aurora Online Magazine.
During refugee week the Hunter Refugee Support Network organised for the Yarramundi Kids Show to entertain and educate over 200 children at Corpus Christi Primary School, Waratah, Newcastle.
Chris Burke, puppeteer and educator, created Yarramundi Kids to educate children about why it’s ok to be different. The aim of show was to emphasise how important it is to welcome people who come to Australia searching for a safe place to live, even though they may look and speak differently from us.
Penola House is a workplace where we share and learn new skills to empower new citizens to live life more fully in our Newcastle community.
